“9,000 people a year die early in London due to air pollution” – Julian Bell, London Councils’ Transport & Environment spokesperson
“UK air pollution ‘linked to 40,000 early deaths a year” – Michelle Roberts, Health editor @ BBC News Online
London and the rest of Britain are experiencing a terrible issue with air pollution. The picture above is a scene from Stop Killing Londoners, Cut Air Pollution protest on 30th October 2017. A big reason for this pollution are the many petrol and diesel vehicles that plough the streets of Britain daily. The problem is so serious that 9000 people experience premature death in a year due to the serious air pollution, according to Julian Bell.
Several steps have been taken by the government to change this situation around and to reduce the potential financial costs if their citizens continue to fall prey to the air pollution.
Grant schemes
As part of Britain’s move towards a greener city, they have created grant schemes for everyone to set up electric vehicle charging points. The On-street Residential Chargepoint Scheme will provide funding towards authorities to install charging points in their local streets for residents to use. The Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme will provide funding of up to 75% for homeowners to install their own charging points in their houses for their electric cars. The Workplace Charging Scheme will be giving vouchers to any private companies, businesses or even public sector organisations to install charging points in their buildings for their employees or customers to use.
Evaluation
The grant schemes that Britain have put in motion are a great form of incentives. The best part of the grants is that they do not only tackle the consumers. Britain recognised that the best way to move forward was to encourage the consumers, offices and other authorities. This will allow a wholesome restructuring of Britain, and ensure that the necessary infrastructure is installed everywhere. They also identified that it was important to encourage both businesses and consumers to install charging points so that anyone can charge anywhere at anytime; whether at home on a weekend or at work on a weekday.
Passing bills
The Automated and Electric Cars Bill is currently in the process of being passed in Parliament. This Bill is said to increase both the accessibility and availability of chargepoints for electric cars. The government would also have the power to install charging points all over the country. In fact, all motorway services (a.k.a. resting points on an expressway) and major petrol stations will have to install charging points once this Bill is passed in Parliament.
Evaluation
By passing this bill, it will become legislation or lawful to abide by whatever the bill states. Therefore, this means nobody has an excuse not to install charging points where required. The Automated and Electric Cars Bill will aid in increasing the total number of charging points in all of Britain, making it accessible and convenient for all drivers. This will serve as a reassurance to motorists that when they make the switch, they will not experience any inconveniences.
Total ban
Britain’s Environmental Minister announced that from 2040 onwards, there will be a ban on the sale of diesel or petrol cars in Britain. Instead, consumers and car manufacturers are encouraged to make the switch to hybrid or electric cars.
One particular example of this phasing out, is Oxford. Oxford will be the first city in Britain to ban both petrol and diesel cars from the city centre from 2020 onwards. Therefore, any cars, taxis or buses that produce emissions, will be banned from entering the city centre. In addition, they will be introducing reduced parking fees for alt-cars.
Evaluation
Bans are great for flat-out stopping an undesirable behaviour, which in this case is traditional fuel cars. Doing so in advance, allows car manufacturers, city planners, consumers, businesses & any other stakeholder to plan ahead and make the necessary changes. It forces everyone to change their lifestyles and their future plans such that they align with the goals of the government. Especially when change is hard and occur very slowly, bans work best and guarantee results.